Friday, February 08, 2008

I've sold my third book. In writerspeak, this means that my agent and I approached a publisher, got an offer on the book and agreed on the price. I haven't signed the contract yet, but I'm gonna. The book will be published by New World Library, the nice folks who published Sit Down And Shut Up last year. They didn't offer quite the king's ransom I'd hoped for. But it'll be enough that I won't have to stand around at highway off ramps with a cardboard sign that says, "Will Tell You The Secret Of Life For Food" just yet. Maybe next year.

Plus Tsuburaya Productions recently won their ten year long court case against the gentleman in Thailand who said he invented Ultraman. How did he invent Ultraman, you ask? Apparently in 1962 he showed Eiji Tsuburaya a picture book of Thai Buddha statues and said, "You ought to make a movie about a superhero that looks like Buddha." Which is like saying that you created Star Wars because in 1971 you had a drunken conversation with George Lucas in which you said, "You oughta do a movie about outer space!" Amazingly this blather fooled enough people that the case went on for pretty much the entire time I worked for the company. Anyway, it looks like they want me to do some work for them In Hollywood for which they will pay me a wee small bit of cash. So I am officially no longer sweating it about money. At least not whole lot. I'll be considerably poorer this year than I've been for a while. But at least I won't starve and I won't have to get a real job.

Which is not to say there aren't some advantages to having to get a real job. I actually like having a schedule and a clear goal for each day. The work of an independent freelance writer has probably as many bad points overall. Except I can go sit on the beach at 2 in the afternoon on a Monday and pretend it's my job.

Anyway, I did a word count on the book just now and it currently stands at a whopping 82,257 words! A supposedly "average" novel in English is about 60,000. I know Hardcore Zen was considerably shorter, around 40,000, I believe. Sit Down And Shut Up probably clocked in at about 60,000. I can't remember.

The tentative title for the new book is Zen Wrapped in Karma Dipped in Chocolate. Although I am also pondering using the title Sex, Death and Zen. But considering how things have worked out for the previous two books, neither of these will be the title in the end. I'm pretty bad with titles.

In any case it's about sex, death and Zen. It's a chronicle of the year 2007 in which a lot of people and relationships in my life died, sex was had (I even became known as the "Porno Buddhist" -- I'm so proud!), and Zen was practiced and preached. The book will make a lot of people mad. I know this going into it, although I'm not really sure I'll ever understand why certain types of people get mad about the things they get mad about. Sex is a huge sore spot for religious people. Lately I've been getting to see just how deeply ugly the religious response to anything that involves sex can be. And I'm not just talking about some of the massively weird comments that have been appearing in this blog. Oy vey. Though those are certainly very puzzling...

But the book isn't just about sex. It's about death and loss and how we keep on going in spite of them. Not just that. It's about how death and loss can be the things that spur a person on to find out what's true in life.

Anyway, whatever. I hope the book gets out there by Spring time. But who knows?

I think you have to accept being a Vegetarian and not taking any legal not illegal drugs is only "more logical" for you. There is a growing amount of people for refrain from sex deliberately.

Being against sex (like classic Buddhism) is not very popular, so popular contemporary Buddhism avoids this topic. It's very common to hate cigarettes and meat though, so people tend to emphasize that.

Nice. Someone was just asking me if you're coming back through Detroit any time soon. Maybe I can tell 'em yes before too long. & maybe you and Neil can finally meet (that is, of course, if you promise to leave your sinful (how do people even spell that word?) West Coast ways at home!). Vince

Many of New World Library’s books are categorized as New Age, though “there’s really nothing new in New Age; it’s been around for a long time. It’s perennial philosophy, after all. Certainly for many, though, a New Age is dawning. Perhaps it will prove to be a great New Renaissance, possibly even an era of cooperation and global peace. We certainly hope so...SOURCE

You must write faster than a speeding bullet! I will buy it as soon as its preorderable at Amazon.com.

People got upset about sex because pregnancy was not easily preventable. Clergy with children was difficult for the xtians, because the church had property and power. So they wrote a lot of books about it which are still in use. A lot of cultures used celebacy of monks as a way of population control. Kinder than killing extra babies.

You can tell by Brads writing he's writing for the publishers and the editors have their hands down his pants. I'd like to see him write with out an agenda. Notice how much he comments on making money? Being broke.

THIS is thy hour O Soul, thy free flight into the wordless,Away from books, away from art, the day erased, the lesson done,Thee fully forth emerging, silent, gazing, pondering the themes thoulovest best.Night, sleep, and the stars.

Congrats on the third book, Bad! I've enjoyed your first two, and will pick the next one up, too. Someday, I may even make it down to the Hill St. Center for zazen. I've only sat a couple times on my own, and would really appreciate seeing how it's done.

Congratulations on the new book! It's good to hear that your financial situation is projected to be a bit better than expected and you won't have to end up wandering around the world like Caine from Kung Fu.

Very cool, Brad! I am glad to know that you're third book is on the way. I purchased and read Sit Down and Shut Up and enjoyed it very much. My friend just finished it up today (passed it on to him). Picked up Hard Core Zen last week and am happily wandering through it as well. Thank you.

As a follow up to something I posted earlier (here), I would like to offer a brief summing up. For my examination of the E-sangha forum is by now both extensive and deep. Based on this research, I conclude forthrightly that E-sangha forum IS Dark Zen. I furthermore consider E-sangha forum the most hideous example imaginable to date of a rampant Buddhist Fundamentalism that at the same time purveys an essentially fascist political outlook.

Not that I would drop it like a vile rag and run, but E-sangha fourm is definitely something that warrants cautious observation and study in a disciplined ethnological sense, i.e. as a clear demonstration of what I tend to depict as Contemporary Neo-Buddhism.

However tenebrific, then, approached in such a manner, E-sangha forum may very well promote ones broad elucidation, as it throws rich light on the reasons why this thing we traditionally refer to as "Buddhism" may in fact represent the most insidious intellectual current of our time.

Even so, E-sangha forum is not without its precious contrubutors — and heads above the rest is the compassionate professor Dr. Plamen Gradinarov, a damn brilliant teacher who senses hunger and feeds it abundantly. Just search the user name Imago, read, think and learn.

A coward calling himself Anonymous wrote:You can tell by Brads writing he's writing for the publishers and the editors have their hands down his pants. I'd like to see him write with out an agenda. Notice how much he comments on making money? Being broke.

Every artist, writer, musician, etc. hears this at least once in their lives. Actually, for an artist to hear it only once, he would be fortunate. "He's not a real [fill-in-the-blank-creative-professional]! He's only doing it for the money. He's a sell out !"

Guess what, sunshine ? EVERYONE does his or her job for the money. Doctors, lawyers, bus drivers, rock stars, artists, and writers all do their jobs for the money.

Even practitioners of altruistic jobs (doctor, priest, relief worker, etc.), where said practitioners are supposed to be "above" money, still need enough dough to pay their expenses and keep themselves alive to keep doing what they do.

In short,

"A day of no working is a day of no eating."Master Huai-Hai (720 AD-814 AD)

roman g. wrote "Guess what, sunshine ? EVERYONE does his or her job for the money."

Or to quote Dr. Johnson, "None but a blockhead writes for any reason other than money."

I look forward to parting with some of mine for Brad's next book. It also pleases me to hear that somebody is doing something with Ultraman. It will forever be a mystery to me why that franchise has not taken off like a rocket in the U.S. Must be poor management.

I'm happy for brad and his new book and I'll probably read it someday. I think Brad does this for the money, but NOT FOR THE MONEY. It's just the best use of his practice and experience to benefit others. I'm sure with his understanding and wisdom he could make more money doing something else, but neither he nor others would be happier for it.

i'm also happy that his dharma brother Jundo (I think that's his name, I sometimes get names mixed up) has returned to his true nature.

Quit projectingEvery artist, writer, musician, etc. hears this at least once in their lives. Actually, for an artist to hear it only once, he would be fortunate. "He's not a real [fill-in-the-blank-creative-professional]! He's only doing it for the money. He's a sell out !"

No one said sell out. You did though

Guess what, sunshine ? EVERYONE does his or her job for the money. Doctors, lawyers, bus drivers, rock stars, artists, and writers all do their jobs for the money.Really? Astro Glide is that really true. You are deep. Maybe that glide stuff works. :-)

That rocks, nearly finished Sit down and............. also read Hardcore Zen both of which are really my kind of book as i'm a half assed kind of reader, i tend to read for a few days then put it down and not read for 2 or 3 weeks and your books have been really easy to pick back up without lots of re-capping on whats been written so yay you!!!

"Dark Zen.com: CULT !, pure and simple. Just read the part about how Dark Zen is "real" Zen and that other "forms" of Zen are false.:"

Wait, he does what Brad and Nishijima do and isn't them? Unforgivable!

It's good to see that some things never change. There's always a healthy population of Zen waders with their tongues up Brad's ass, and he'll churn out another substanceless collection of aren't-I-clever word anecdotes that are somehow supposed to relate the experiences of a creepy, over the hill ex-punker to ultra-authoritarian Japanese Buddhist sects. The sad thing is that he's in every Barnes and Nobles in America while people who do have something more worthwhile to talk about than a shitty band from 25 years ago and how Dogen would be totally cool with Edgeplay (which is a lot like zen, by the way!) can't get published.

You're perfect for L.A., though, it's a great city for jive-ass phonies.

Note: The Dark Zen guys do seem like an authoritarian cult, the only difference being they're NOT TRYING TO PRETEND OTHERWISE. Which makes them cooler than the punk Soto groupies right there.

A real cult:"Generally speaking, the characteristics of a cult include a strong, central, living religious authority whose word is absolute and unchallengeable. Members of the cult are usually cut off from their existing circle of family and friends or encouraged to isolate themselves from those contacts, often with warnings that outsiders cannot be trusted and with permission to be deceptive in dealing with former associates. They are often expected to subject themselves to intense control by the religious authority, with nearly every aspect of their lives regulated." SOURCE

In December 1967 1 know someone had to take the plunge. I did and emerged very knocked out, but alive. Probably the only one ever to do so in 75,000,000 years. I have all the data now, but only that given here is needful.

One's body is a mass of individual thetans stuck to oneself or to the body.

One has to clean them off by running incident II and Incident I. It is a long job, requiring care, patience and good auditing.

You are running beings. They respond like any preclear. Some large, some small.

Moloch whose eyes are a thousand blind windows! Moloch whose skyscrapers stand in the long streets like endless Jehovas! Moloch whose factories dream and choke in the fog! Moloch whose smokestacks and antennae crown the cities!

Moloch whose love is endless oil and stone! Moloch whose soul is electricity and banks! Moloch whose poverty is the specter of genius! Moloch whose fate is a cloud of sexless hydrogen! Moloch whose name is the Mind!

omg brad! i can't believe you wrote a book during the writer's strike!!! oh wait...

can't wait to read the third installment of "Brad Warner Presents:" will it have an amazing cover like sit down and shut up??? oh man... i knew it was coming but hearing that it's sold means it's one step closer to my fingers and eyes!

I'm sorry. So Sorry. Sunshine please forgive me. Sometimes I just don't know what gets into me. I have a difficult time with depression and anger. That's why I call you Sunshine. My last name is not Glide, its Gabriel. Roman Gabriel. Some of you might remember my football day for the Los Angeles Rams. Thats me.